“I suppose so,” assented Darcy, spiritlessly, and made her farewells in no more cheerful frame of mind than when she had come, albeit one load was off her shoulders. CHAPTER XIX FOR a week or more Gloria neither saw nor heard from the girl. At the end of that time she did, to her surprise, encounter the erstwhile bogus Sir Montrose without his hirsute adornments and in his proper person of Mr. Jacob Remsen, sauntering idly along the Park. Hailing him, she took him into her taxi. Mr. Remsen was not looking his customary sunny self. “Did the law’s minions catch you in spite of your whiskers?” she asked. “No. Case was compromised. So I’ve come back.” “And what are you going to do now?” “I’m going to work.” “Work! You?” said the actress with unfeigned and unflattering surprise. “Why? What’s the answer?” “Ambition,” replied Mr. Remsen in a lifeless voice. “Sounds more like penal servitude,” commented Gloria. “And what is to be the scene of your violent endeavors?” “Ask the Government,” he replied wearily. “Washington, maybe. Or perhaps San Francisco or Savannah. Or right here in New York, for all I know.” “Jerusalem and Madagascar And North and South Amerikee,” quoted the other. “Are you about to become an American courier for the peripatetic Mr. Cook, his agency?” “Got a chance to go into the Treasury Department,” answered Remsen gloomily. “Don’t give up heart,” she encouraged him. “Strong young men like you often survive the rigors of that life. Pity they don’t send you to London, where your monocle and your accent would be appreciated. By the way, have you seen your quondam fiancée since your return?” “No,” said Remsen. Gloria, noting that he winced much as Darcy had winced, wondered, and turned the talk to other topics which gave her opportunity to revolve the problem of the two masqueraders in her mind. That there was a problem she was now well assured. She took it to luncheon with her, after dropping one of the subjects of it, and came to a conclusion characteristic of her philosophy and worthy of a mathematician; namely, that the figures in any problem work out their own solution if properly arranged. She decided to do the arranging after luncheon by telephone. She sent word to Darcy to meet her at the studio without fail at five. Then she got Remsen at his club and told him that a matter of importance had come up about which she wanted to see him at her place about five-fifteen. Whether she herself could get through her engagements and be back home at that hour she did not know nor particularly care. Her duties as hostess did not weigh heavily upon her in this respect. Let Jack or Darcy or both reach the place before her; it didn’t greatly matter. Perhaps it would even be better that way.